The same Doctor but a different person
by Lionheart 39
Summary: Alistair explains to the Doctor his worries about what happens when the Doctor regenerates.
1. Chapter 1

The man on the bed opened his eyes and looked at the florescent light fitting puzzled. Why was he looking up at a white ceiling, that obviously needed repainting and a strip light? Come to that what was he doing laid down in the middle of the day? The other question was who was he? That one took some thinking about, oh, yes, right. He was Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge -Stewart. Ok so back to the original question why was he looking at an off white ceiling? He turned his head slightly to the side, saw a man in a velvet jacket looking at him. The man opened his mouth to say something. But Alistair fell asleep again before he could.

This time the florescent light was lit. He was looking at it wishing it wasn't. The brightness hurt his eyes.

"Back with us Alistair? I hope you are going to remain awake a bit longer this time!"

He turned his head to see Liz Shaw, his former scientific advisor. Oh yes, that was it, she had brought some Alien artefacts found by one of her students for the Doctor to look at. Then there had been.. what? He started to sit up as he said,

"Miss Sha.."

A bolt of pain hit him in the chest and Liz Shaw was quickly pushing him back down on to the pillows.

"Alistair, don't try sitting up you will rip your stitches."

He lay back on the pillows gasping as the young woman looked down at him worriedly.

"What happened?" he gasped.

Liz squeezed his hand, "You got shot! When that mad man tried to kill the Doctor!"

He looked puzzled.

"You don't remember?"

He shook his head.

"You stepped in front of the Doctor to protect him. Are you stupid or what!" she demanded in an angry voice. Then she started to cry and turned abruptly and ran out of the room.

That was a rather strange reaction. He thought.

"I can see you still don't understand women Brigadier!" a voice said from the bedside.

Alistair turned his head and saw the man in the velvet jacket.

"She seemed a little upset that I saved your life, Doctor. Have you two had an argument or something?" he asked curiously.

"No, but she's probably as annoyed, as I am, that someone she cares very deeply about, who is mortal, with just one life then is permanently dead, steps between a Time Lord and the man trying to shoot him. A Time Lord who can die 8 more times and still walk away!"

He was still trying to process the 'cares very deeply about.' Yes, they had well they had parted as more than friends. They had confessed that they loved each other. But they were both realistic enough to know it couldn't work. He had expected that over the last couple of years Liz would have been snapped up by some lucky man at Cambridge. Were academics blind or what?

The Doctor was looking at him shaking his head. "You are a total idiot Lethbridge-Stewart. That young woman is in love with you. She's been frantic these last few days."

"Days?" The Brigadier croaked. "For a bullet wound? I must be getting old!"

"For four bullet wounds, he was using a machine pistol!" the Doctor said. " He wanted to make sure he killed me! Mind you I think he'd have been disappointed!"

"Four.?. Well I suppose that is a bit more serious."

The Doctor was looking at him totally amazed. "The only reason you are alive Brigadier is you had two amazing Doctors at your side in seconds. I also put you in a stasis field in the TARDIS. That gave us the time to patch you up. To say it was touch and go is understating it!"

"Arr, so it was serious?" the Brigadier said understanding dawning.

The Doctor nodded. "Alistair, you do know I regenerate don't you?" the Doctor asked unsure.

"Yes, Doctor!"

"So when you jumped between Manning and myself it was just an instinctive thing?"

The Brigadier sat thinking about this for several minutes. Then seemed to remember the incident and his brow furrowed. "No Doctor, I did it deliberately!"

"But why?" the Time Lord asked disbelief showing on his face. "He couldn't kill me, but he certainly could kill you! Why would you risk your life, if my life wasn't in danger!"

The Brigadier looked at the Doctor as though worried the Time Lord wouldn't understand.

"Alistair, I want to know, you are my best friend, you have nearly died doing something rather foolish and I want to know what made you do it."

"Well Doctor you regenerate, you become the Doctor again but you are not the same man. I have known two of you. The man who I worked with against the Great Intelligence and the Cybermen and this you."

The Doctor nodded, he was aware that he was very different to his previous self but he was still the Doctor.

"Well your previous self was a lot easier to work with from the start. Just because I was a soldier he didn't treat me as if I was stupid. We trusted each other. We had an easy friendship. Ok, I know I don't understand half of what you and Liz say, but I am a good soldier and a good officer. I follow orders but I also question bad orders and I would die to protect my men and to protect this planet."

The Doctor squeezed his arm. "Alistair, I know that!"

"Well yes, maybe you do now! But that wasn't the case in the beginning! If you hadn't been stranded on Earth you would have left after that Silurian incident and we wouldn't have seen you again! I had every confidence Liz would have given us the advantage we needed to protect Earth, but your knowledge made it simpler to do." The Brigadier stated.

"I still don't understand, why you put yourself in danger!" the Doctor insisted.

"Because the next, you," he said hesitantly, "may decide, we aren't worth helping. May decide I am too stupid to be friends with. Perhaps, I just didn't want to lose a friend!"

The Doctor rubbed his hand over his face.

"Being a good soldier means it's your duty to die to save the people you are ordered to protect, that's a good soldiers job. When it's a friend it's no longer a duty, it's a privilege." The Brigadier said looking the Doctor in the eye. "It's the nature of a military life that you lose a lot of friends. Some die just doing their duty, some die saving you, some die for no sensible reason what so ever. Often you wish it had been you rather than them. Survivors guilt isn't much fun!"

The Doctor squeezed his friends arm. "Alistair, I know what survivors guilt is. Believe me. I've survived things I wish I hadn't. But if we had lost you, that would have been one of the hardest to take."

"I stepped between you and that gun because I didn't want to find I'd lost my best friend." The Brigadier said looking at the Doctor sadly.

The Doctor sat looking at his friend rubbing his chin. "Alistair, sometime after I have regenerated things are a little hazy. This time more than ever before, because it was forced on me. But I do remember our friendship and I'm sorry I treated you with so little respect." I know I took too much of my frustration at being trapped on Earth out on you. Jo, was always telling me off for it." He said apologetically.

Alistair still looked at him unsure.

"No matter what face I wear, Alistair, you will be my best friend." He gripped his friend's hand. "Now I suggest I have a word with Liz and tell her what you have told me. Then you two need to talk. Please be as honest with her as you have been with me. You love her and I assure you she loves you. So please stop making each other unhappy and get married! Because I've always wanted to make a Best Man's speech!"


	2. Chapter 2

Alistair woke up to the feel of his hand being clasped in two warm, small and soft hands. He turned his head and a smile twitched his lips. He rubbed his thumb along the back of one of the hands. Liz looked up at him and a smile crossed her face.

"Alistair," she said quietly.

He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it.

"Hi Liz," he said quietly, " I have missed you."

Liz Shaw stood up and planted a kiss on his lips and smoothed a stray strand of hair from his forehead.

"I'm not too late then?" he asked. "No Cambridge don has stolen your heart?"

Liz laughed. "Cambridge dons aren't brave enough to try! Anyway it already belongs to someone special and it always will."

Alistair touched her cheek, "I hope that's me you are referring to."

"Who else, would be stupidly brave enough to try to win my heart?" She laughed.

"You've spoken to the Doctor?"

She nodded.

"Are you still angry with me?" he asked.

"No, Yes.. I don't know." She looked down at him. "You nearly died, Alistair, I.., I've never been so frightened in my life. Oh, Alistair, I don't ever want to live through an experience like that again."

Alistair, looked at her sadly, "Having spoken to the M.O. I doubt I'm going to be leading many more charges into battle."

"I'm sorry Alistair, I know how important your job is to you, but I can't say I'm sorry you will be away from danger. I couldn't take another week like this one."

"If I have to retire the pension should be pretty good, I may even get an advisors post and there is always the teaching to fall back on."

Liz looked at him puzzled.

"Look, I may not be much of a catch Liz, but is it possible you would consider marrying this old wreck of a soldier?"

"Is that a marriage proposal Alistair?" she asked smiling.

"Well, I would try the getting down on one knee if I thought it would convince you."

"Don't you even think about it!" she exclaimed urgently.

Liz lent in and kissed him.

"I don't require any convincing. The answer is YES!" she shouted.

Alistair stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers, a relieved smile on his face.

"Now you've said yes, it'll be safe to tell you the Doctor is planning to be my best man!"

Liz looked temporarily horrified, then she smiled wickedly.

"Well, there is always Gretna Green!" she exclaimed.


End file.
